Imo it’s in Marner’s best interest to have a contract with his new club ready to sign soon after any trade. So that would mean he picks where he’s will to go. The Leafs can come to him with several options but ultimately it’s up to Marner which he chooses. Once he’s chosen then the clubs negotiate. I see Treliving, who made that terrible Tkatchuk trade for the Flames, making a similarly poor deal for the Leafs. So keep Marner. Don’t make a bad trade just to make one.
There's a couple of different approaches that can be taken.
1. Leafs ask Marner to give a list of 3-5 teams that he'd like to go to. That list will presumably be 3-5 teams that Marner is interested in signing with; and Leafs trade him to one of those 3-5 teams - Leafs choice.
2. Leafs sit down with Marner and Marner says, "I want to go to this team, and this team only". Leafs try to make a deal with that team, but failing that, he may lose out on the opportunity to join that team.
3. Leafs go and start shoppign Marner without asking him if he'd like to go anywhere specific, and then come to him with a proposal. This isn't really likely, given that it could all be a waste of time given the amount of control Marner has.
As for the Tkachuk trade, Treliving actually did quite well on that one. He got a guy coming off a 115-point season making $5.9m for 1 year. He got a highly regarded 28 year old #2/3 right shot defenceman coming off a 44-point season. He got a prospect who had seen NHL ice, and an unprotected 1st round pick.
The problem(s) with that trade were:
- The subsequent contract that Huberdeau signed.
- The fact that he didn't recognize the possibility/probability of Huberdeau's 115 points being an abberation.
- Possibly prioritizing gettting immediate help (he basically traded 1 immediate impact player for 2) versus guys that might grow into the role.
Even on the evaluation of Huberdeau, it's a little hard to fault him on that. Toss out his 115 point season, over the prior 3 years, he had put up 231 points in 206 games; a 92-point pace.
Tkachuk on the other hand if you throw away the 104 points he had, over the prior 3 years, had 181 in in 205 games, a 72-point pace.